


Sleeping Beauty

by Rilo



Category: Pet Shop of Horrors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-15
Updated: 2006-06-15
Packaged: 2017-10-07 07:27:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rilo/pseuds/Rilo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>He didn't tell anyone about his dreams, or about the horrible feeling he had that something important was missing.</i> [Spoilers for end of series.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleeping Beauty

The dreams started when he was young.

He dreamed of strong arms holding him, tight enough to restrain but never _quite_ enough to bruise. He smelled the stench of cigarettes, and heard a rough voice calling him names that made Grandfather send him to bed without dinner when he repeated them. Sometimes he felt pain, and ran to a mirror expecting to see blood.

There never was.

He never told Grandfather about these dreams. Something inside him that sounded like Grandfather but wasn't told him not to, that something very terrible would happen if he did. He didn't know who the voice was, but he did what it told him.

He didn't tell anyone about his dreams, or about the horrible feeling he had that something important was missing. _What_ was missing he couldn't say, only that the hole it left behind when it vanished hurt like a dull ache, and more with every year. Sometimes he almost knew what it was, but those moments always passed when Grandfather called his name.

So he waited, taking care of the shop and animals, learning his lessons like a dutiful child, and sending himself to sleep with the thought that whatever it or they were, it would find him. He just had to wait.

It was twenty years before he found out what he was waiting for.

Grandfather had left the shop in his care, claiming a need to travel now that his grandchild was of age to care for the shop himself. The shop was settled in a lovely city by the sea, and had been there less than a month when the FBI took notice of the business.

When he opened the door to see Agent Chris Orcot on the other side, his heart nearly froze in his chest and he remembered what it was he'd been waiting for. It was blond, tall, rough, reeked of cheap cigarettes and more than once had nearly been the death of him. He recalled it as clearly as if he'd never forgotten, and so he graced the young Agent with his sweetest smile and invited him inside the shop.

That night the young Count wept into his pillow for the first time in his life.


End file.
